A strategic Collaborative Agreement to support the scaling up of healthcare innovations in low- and middle-income countries has been signed between the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Development Innovation Alliance (IDIA).
The two entities work together to promote and facilitate the demand, supply, assessment, and scale-up of health innovation for the benefit of low- and middle-income countries.
Dr Soumya Swaminathan, WHO Chief Scientist, said: “This collaboration is another great example of how agencies are coming together in different ways to connect the ever-increasing supply of health innovations to the growing demand for those solutions in WHO member states.”
Access to innovative healthcare
The WHO will link impactful health innovations to the countries that need them most and the IDIA will help to accelerate and deepen our collective impact in tackling the greatest challenges in global health.
The collaboration will focus on five areas including demand for innovation in response to national health needs and global targets, supply of innovations, sharing expertise and tools to support assessment of innovations, scaling up of innovations, and the development of innovation and scaling knowledge and skills among WHO staff, Member States, and development partners.
Karlee Silver IDIA Founding Member and co-CEO of Grand Challenges Canada, said: “We are so pleased to welcome the World Health Organization as a new strategic partner for IDIA. We have always believed that just as it takes a village to raise a child, it takes an ecosystem of actors to scale an innovation, and IDIA members are excited to be working closely with WHO in helping spread impactful innovations to build a better, healthier future for people all over the world.”
“This strategic collaboration benefits from the strengths and offerings each organisation brings to the table,” said Bernardo Mariano Junior, Director of Digital Health and Innovation, WHO, “partnerships like this are key for connecting the supply of innovations, particularly those that are de-risked and transitioning to scale, with demand from countries.”
